Pandit buys chunk of Citi shares to shore up confidence

NEW YORK: Citigroup chief executive officer Vikram Pandit and three deputies bought a total of 1.3 million shares in the US bank on Thursday in a show of confidence after the stock fell below $9 for the first time in 12 years.

Pandit, 51, bought 750,000 common shares, paying an average of about $9.25 apiece, Citigroup said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. He also bought 100,000 preferred shares. In all, he spent about $8.4 million.

John Havens, 52, head of the New York-based bank���s trading and investment-banking division, bought 250,000 shares, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Trading chief James Forese, 45, bought 200,000 and chief risk officer Brian Leach bought 100,000, according to the person, who declined to be identified because the company hasn���t disclosed the purchases.

Citigroup, the fourth-biggest US bank by market value, has tumbled 16% this week in New York trading and is down almost 70% this year, after four straight quarterly losses totalling $20 billion.

Citigroup may report a fourth-quarter loss of $2.85 billion, Oppenheimer & Co analyst Meredith Whitney estimated in an October 21 report. The mounting losses have led Citigroup to slash jobs. The company started notifying staff members last week who are affected by the bank���s plan to eliminate 9,100 positions over the next 12 months, or about 2.6% of its headcount.

Job reductions may accelerate with the goal of lowering the global headcount to about 290,000 from 352,000 at the end of September, the Journal reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the matter.

Financial firms worldwide have axed more than 155,000 jobs since 2007, when US subprime mortgage defaults sparked the global credit crunch, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To stem losses, Citigroup also is increasing interest rates for some credit-card customers by 3 percentage points, the Journal reported.